Half of Doctors in U.S. Report Medical Errors

Linda Snyder

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Recently, researchers found that only half of all U.S. doctors report medical mistakes or unethical colleagues.

Only 46 percent of physicians surveyed stated that they knew of a serious medical error and didn't report it.

The U.S. Institute of Medicine surveyed more than 1,600 physicians in 2003 and 2004; only 31 percents had undergone a competency review in the past three years. About 98,000 people die every year as a result of medical errors in hospitals.

Dr. James Thompson, the chief executive officer of the Federation of State Medical Boards stated that state medical boards don't have their own team of investigators and most are underfunded and understaffed. State medical boards only react to complaints.

In 2005, the National Practitioner Data Bank reported that there was 135 medical malpractice payment reports were made against physicians in Colorado.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Medical Malpractice.